I was so excited to go! I finally had an excuse to wear my
almost-new boots that my parents bought me as a back-to-school gift. I must be
clear – my excitement was not, of course, borne out of wearing these boots.
Instead, I was excited because I've never seen a rodeo other than on a square
of glass in my living room.

Anyway, Saturday came along and (surprise!) I woke up late
(no, really…that was definitely a surprise). Luckily, my “late” is everyone
else’s “early” so I was still on time to get to the bus. I forgot how much
paperwork we’re supposed to do to go on a trip. It was boring. All I wanted to
do was get to Fort Worth and see all the animals and competitors. When we
finally got there – and really, it wasn't long at all – we took some pictures
and headed to the International Suite where they were welcoming our
international students.

Once we hung around in the International Suite for a while,
we dispersed. My group didn't really have a destination; we decided to just
walk around until we found something we liked. Two minutes later, we found the
vendors. I couldn't say how many vendors there were, but they were selling
everything from saddles and stirrups to fudge and rock candy. It was crazy (and
I’m not much of a shopper), so I was glad when we finally left.

We decided to continue walking around. We almost walked into
an area where all of the animals were being readied for the day’s events.
Luckily, the doors had windows so we were able to turn around and walk the
other way. Fast-forward a few minutes of fighting the crowd, and we ended up by
a vendor selling food. It was now lunchtime and we were all hungry. Unfortunately, the vendor only accepted cash
so we had to find an ATM. Fast-forward a few more minutes of fighting the
crowd, and we ended up in another building full of vendors. This place was even
crazier. They had tractors. Inside. They also had purses and hats and…other
stuff.

The first ATM that we noticed was on the opposite side of
the building, so it took a while to get out of there. Once we got cash, we went
back to the vendor and got some turkey legs. I felt like Bam-Bam and spent more
time thinking about how wonderful the Flintstones were instead of devouring the
meat. I ended up getting bored so I gave it away. We walked around some more, but
it was much of the same.

Just before two, we headed to the Will Rogers building to
see the rodeo. Our seats were in section A, row 10. The climb to get there
terrified me since there weren't any railings along the stairs. I was happy to
sit down.

A short while later, the rodeo started. It was insane. The
entire arena floor filled with horses—10 or 14 of them stood at attention while
50 or 100 more zigzagged through. They had riders dressed as old Texas
soldiers, carrying every flag of Texas. Many important people rode through
there. Most of the horses left the way they came, but the 10 or 14 remained
still even as fireworks exploded around them. I can’t imagine how much training
and coordination went into the opening ceremony, not to mention the rest of the
events.

I can’t remember the exact order of events after the opening
ceremony, but I do remember that they had bucking broncos, a calf scramble, chuck wagon races, barrel racing, steer wrestling, bull riding and Whiplash the
Cowboy Monkey. Most of the events I've seen before, but seeing them in person
made it much more exciting to me.

It was definitely
helpful to know what to expect so that instead of thinking about what exactly
the purpose of each event was I could think about how they interact with the
Texas sub-culture. I use the word “interact” because I think it more accurately
describes not only how culture shapes people but how people shape culture.

So far, I have concluded that these events originated as points
of pride – how much control one has over their animals, how skillful the
animals and their trainers are, and how daring men (and women) can be. What
better way to show off your teams’ skills than to invite the whole town to see
you in action?

I am still processing all of the day’s events, but I think
that in the future I will be better prepared to analyze and review my own
culture and subcultures and see the relationships between them.